Sept. 7, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--The Brown’s Last Chance campaign will take to the streets Saturday at 10 a.m. to participate in the Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice march in San Francisco. In support of the march’s focus on a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, the groups will call out Governor Jerry Brown on his failure to rein in California’s oil and gas extraction. The march comes just before Brown hosts the Global Climate Action Summit next week.

The Brown’s Last Chance campaign launched in April with a letter demanding that Gov. Brown halt the development of all new dirty fuel projects in California, institute a setback of 2,500 feet between oil operations and people, create a plan to phase out all fossil fuel extraction as quickly as possible, and provide support and opportunities for those most impacted by the transition.

Because Brown has refused to act on the demands of the campaign, members of the Brown’s Last Chance campaign will march together tomorrow before protesting his Global Climate Action Summit next week.

While the state is moving to increase its renewable energy standard, that will do little to protect the members of frontline communities.

During Governor Brown’s eight years in office, his regulators have approved more than 20,000 permits for oil and gas drilling. Science shows that new fossil fuel development must stop to ensure a safe climate future. Much of the currently-producing oil, gas and coal fields globally must be shut down before they are fully depleted in order to meet the Paris climate goals.

Despite the clear scientific imperative to end new fossil fuel development, Governor Brown has not presented California with a plan to do so.

“No Governor should be in the business of poisoning our families and destroying our environment. Governor Brown’s priority in the run up to the Global Climate Action Summit has been to cover up his cowardly support of the fossil fuel industry,” said Matt Nelson, Executive Director of Presente.org, the nation’s largest online Latinx organizing group. California families deserve to live in safe communities, free from climate devastation and harmful fossil fuel production; and we deserve a Governor who is not afraid to protect our climate, our people, and our government from corrupt corporate abuse.”

“Jerry Brown has ignored the suffering of thousands of people living next to oil drilling operations, including members of my own community that experience nausea and asthma on a daily basis. That is not how real climate leaders behave." said Ashley Hernandez, Organizer for Communities for a Better Environment who lives in Wilmington, Los Angeles.

“We have no more time to waste on dialing back oil production if we want to avoid the worst of climate damage that is already upon us,” said Consumer Watchdog advocate Liza Tucker. “This is ground zero for frontline communities, climate advocates, businesses and consumers who feel that Governor Brown has taken no single concrete action to begin to turn off the oil spigot while he has turned up the amount of clean energy sold in-state.”

“We’re marching because Brown’s climate legacy will be failure unless he addresses California’s own dirty oil extraction,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “We need to make it clear that real climate leadership means keeping fossil fuels in the ground.”

“We march in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and other communities directly impacted by oil and gas extraction. We rise for a world in which indigenous rights are respected and forests and sacred territories are protected,” said Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “To make such a world a reality, we must say no to new oil and gas extraction from California to the Amazon and begin a just transition to clean, renewable energy. Our futures depend on it.”

"It is too bad that Governor Brown is more interested in talking about climate change rather than taking the critical actions needed to solve the challenge,” said Adam Scow, California Director of Food & Water Watch. “His refusal to take any action to reign in the oil and gas industry illustrates that the Governor is either a hypocrite or lacks the mettle to be a real leader.”

"As our state burns around us, our leaders are hiding behind a smokescreen of action that is simply not up to the task of saving our climate,” said David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director at Oil Change International. “We're demanding real climate leadership that stands up to the fossil fuel industry and keeps fossil fuels in the ground. Governor Brown has one final chance to show that leadership by announcing a managed phase out of oil and gas production here in California as the summit kicks off. If he needs some inspiration, he need only look to the streets full of marchers and communities around the world fighting fossil fuel extraction in their backyards to see what that real leadership looks like."

"Communities throughout California and up and down the West Coast have been demanding leadership from Gov. Brown and others on both climate AND local pollution. Demand reduction schemes and pollution trading do nothing to protect the vulnerable from increased local pollution from drilling and refining. It's time for Gov. Brown to recognize that communities do not give their permission to be poisoned today while waiting for climate policies to kick in tomorrow," said Isabella Zizi, Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth

“Fossil fuels are fueling cancer and climate change,” said Karuna Jaggar, executive director of Breast Cancer Action. “Every stage of oil production, exposes people to toxic chemicals—such as carcinogens and hormone disruptors—that are linked to breast cancer and other diseases and health disorders. Even though Governor Brown claims to be a climate leader, if he fails to step up to protect people and the planet in his final months in office, his real legacy will be the devastating physical, emotional and financial scars that come with every cancer caused by unchecked fossil fuel production."

“Mothers across our state and nation are organizing to hold our elected officials accountable for taking the bold action needed to protect children from the twin harms of fossil fuel extraction and climate destabilization,” said Stephanie Snow, volunteer leader with Mothers Out Front San Jose. “We call on Governor Brown to fulfill his sacred duty to protect the most vulnerable Californians, children and communities on the front lines of drilling and refining, by seizing this historic opportunity to take even bolder climate action. We call on him to declare a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in the state and to begin a just and managed decline of fossil fuel extraction. Governor Brown, please listen to the mothers!”

###With more than 500,000 member-volunteers, Presente.org is the nation’s largest online Latinx organizing group; advancing social justice with technology, media, and culture.